About DarkGL

DarkGL is a software-rendered OpenGL driver. DarkGL meant to be used on vintage computers without 3D cards.
DarkGL is optimized to run old video games and casual games on computers on late 1990 era computers.

DarkGL will work with any Pentium based CPU and on equivalent chips from Cyrix, AMD, Rise, IDT as well.
DarkGL will offer 3D OpenGL compatibility for systems with S3 Virge, Laguna3D or ATi Rage and Mach64, and other cards.

DarkGL supports OpenGL 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 based games, including games made with the Quake2/Quake3 engine.
DarkGL will also run opensource games, such as tuxkart, tuxracer, xmoto, and homebrew OpenGL games and emulators.
DarkGL will not work properly with 3D engineering softwares, CAD softwares, or with any modeling software.

Instead of focusing on rendering quality and feature-correct renderinig, DarkGL focuses on playable frame rates.
DarkGL is not an official OpenGL driver, and the project is not member of the OpenGL ARB board.

Download DarkGL

Last version of DarkGL:
Mirror 1: Download DarkGL

The package contains all the files for all the systems DarkGL is compatible with.
Please read the release notes in the ZIP file.

Do not overwrite the OpenGL32.dll in your Windows directory!!!

How to use and/or install

Do not overwrite the OpenGL32.dll in your Windows directory, unless you know what you are doing!
Put the OpenGL32.dll into the folder of the video game you want to play. If you overwrite the system
OpenGL file, be sure to make a backup from the original file first!

Absolute minimum system to run DarkGL:
-Pentium/5x86 or a more modern dinosaur from Intel, AMD (k5/k6 and above), VIA (c3 and above), Cyrix (including 6x86L/6x86/6x86MX)
IDT (untested), DP&M Vortex86 / XCORE86, ULI (untested), Rise (untested), SiS (untested), Transmeta (untested).
-In theory, new asian CPU brands should work as well, such as Zhaoxin (untested) and Elbrus (untested) processors.
-32 mbyte memory

Recommended system to use DarkGL
-An x86 CPU faster than 400 MHz
-128 MByte memory or more
-100 MHz system bus or above

CPU and video card compatibility

CPU compatibility chart:

CPU type	Max usable resolution	Max polygon count	Additional notes
Intel Pentium 1	320x200	3000
Intel Pentium MMX	320x240	5000	Overclock it to 250 MHz with 2.5x100 FSB settings.
Intel Pentium 2	400x300	6000
Intel Pentium 3 (Katmai)	400x300	10000
Intel Pentium 3 (Coppermine)	512x384	10000	Use bigger FSB if you can for more speed.
Intel Pentium 4	512x384	15000
Intel Pentium 4D	640x480	15000
AMD K5	320x200	3000
AMD K6	320x200	5000
AMD K6/2	320x240	5000	Use 100 MHz FSB or above.
AMD K7 (first Athlon)	400x300	10000
AMD Athlon XP	512x384	15000	Use 166 or 200 MHz FSB if available.
Cyrix 6x86	320x200	3000
Cyrix 6x86L	320x200	3000
Cyrix 6x86MX	320x240	5000
VIA C3	320x200	5000
VIA C7	400x300	10000
Vortex86 DX	320x200	3000
Vortex86 MX	320x240	5000
ARM v5	320x200	1000
ARM v7	320x200	3000

Althrough DarkGL will compute the 3D geometry on the CPU, some video cards can limit the
maximal playable resolution regardless of even having a powerfull CPU.

Video card compatibility chart:

Video card	Max usable resolution	Additional notes
Trident TGUI	320x200	To slow to display bigger frame buffer
Trident T8000/T9000	320x200	To slow to display bigger frame buffer
S3 Trio	320x240
S3 Virge	512x384
S3 Trio3D	640x480
XGI Volari	320x200	Bigger frame buffer hogs the CPU
ATi Mach64	512x384
ATi Rage	512x384
Cirrus Logic Laguna	640x480
Cirrus Logic Laguna3D	640x480

Its not recommended to use resolution bigger than 320x200 if you have an ISA slot graphics card.

Its not recommended to use resolution bigger than 320x200 if your card has only 1 MByte video memory.

Its not recommended to use resolution bigger than 400x300 if your card has only 2 MByte video memory.

License

1. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

2. Its not allowed to modify the DarkGL binary

3. Its not allowed to disassemble the DarkGL binary

4. This software is freeware/donationware

5. The free version is limited to use up to 2 CPU cores even if you have more cores.

6. You can use and embed this software to other software, both for free and commercial purposes.

Version history

2020/12/09 - Big upgrade
-25% speed-up in rendering in some cases
-Fixed coloring issue with some alpha modes
-Fixed a stability problem
-Linux x86 and x86_64 version is released
-ARM v5 version for Linux is released
-ARM v7 version for Linux is released

2020/11/16 - Scissor fix
-Strange scissor settings sometimes caused crash

2020/11/14 - Various bugfix
-Fixed garbled textures when data aligment was 2
-Fixed a crash with List based rendering
-The lighting engine has been simplified, and a few bugs were fixed in it

2020/11/09 - Hotfix
-Fixed missing BGR, BGRA, and ABGR formats in glDrawPixels
-Circumvented several compiler bugs in the matrix management
-Enabled more compiler optimizations

2020/11/08 - Second alpha test release
-Perspective correction were missing with certain polygon angles - fixed.
-Triangles were falling apart from certain angles. Fixed.
-2-3x speed up in certain situations.
-Fixed crashing after a few 1000 frames on Win98

2020/11/06 - First alpha test release

Donations and Support

This software is freeware, but you have to send donations to be able to contact the support.
You can use the following cryptocurrency to send donations for this software:

Bitcoin Cash: 1H188yx93o4vYzc9vciSwQDu41gdH88CRm
Bitcoin: 1H188yx93o4vYzc9vciSwQDu41gdH88CRm
Monacoin: PNX5pt2Cq4oG3EX1Pht4kkEGMQFu9weJHi
Dogecoin: DU9UE3WZVEvbW3fAnLvQEMZRUMjKCWC5MB
Reddcoin: ReTA9RffeD8besawe3Prmr6R86iDz6S7u6
Litecoin: LNVBzsF72ivL3fimPaAKeoF98ToENXF7gg

If you like this software, then don't forget to donate.
The development will ONLY continue, if donations are being received.

Donators can get support and special versions:

E-mail is being read once or twice per week.
If you have sent a donation, you can contact in e-mail.
Please note: only issues from donators are being read and processed, the rest will be ignored.